


we are the spark

by forestpenguin



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Related, Canon Universe, Everyone Needs A Hug, Finn Needs A Hug, Force-Sensitive Leia Organa, Gen, Movie: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Poe Dameron Needs A Hug, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rewrite, Rose deserves Better, Star Wars: The Last Jedi Spoilers, YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-15 04:03:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13022844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forestpenguin/pseuds/forestpenguin
Summary: the sun sets - and rises.(same story, different storyteller)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Lowkey rewrite of TLJ. Not "what I wanted Episode 8 to be" but rather "if Rian had hired me as his editor". I cut, add, and shuffle around some scenes, fix up dialogue, and in all make it more coherent while emphasizing the parts I liked.  
> MAJOR spoilers for TLJ.

_"There has been an awakening. Have you felt it?"_

* * *

 

Finn's eyes snap open.

"REY!"

White, white, white. He's cocooned in white -no, not snow.

Lights blink hazily at him.

This isn't Starkiller base.

Where's Rey?

"REY?"

Finn thrashes and the lights blur.

"Sir, it is advised that in your state-"

"REY?!"

The med-droid crashes into the wall. Machinery beeps angrily, something buzzes in his ears.

Finn tries to move and his back sings with pain. His vitals shoot up, sending screens into a flurry of angry red.

_Where. Is. Rey?_

A needle pricks his arm, and all the white fades to black.

* * *

[A week earlier]

Luke throws the lightsaber into the ocean.

Rey stares at him, stunned, as he marches off.

She creeps towards the edge of the cliff and the dark blue waves gently lapping at the surface.

Her eyes sting, wet.

_Finn. Leia. The Resistance._

Rey blinks, rapidly, and their faces disappear back into the waves.

She sighs, shaky breath leveling off, and grips her staff.

There is much work to be done.

 


	2. Chapter 2

_"Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi. You're my only Hope."_

* * *

 

"What's that buddy?"

Poe can't stop the shaking. He's landed, he's  _safe,_ but his hands tremble on the console.

He tugs off his gloves, hoping it'd help, but it only gets worse.

Poe fumbles for the ring on his chain, and grasps it tightly. 

_Mamá?_

BB-8 chirps.

He blinks, brought back to reality. "Finn? Awake?" 

BB-8 hums in affirmation.

Nerves forgotten, Poe leaps out of his ship and bolts to the medbay.

* * *

 

Poe half-slides into the partially open door of the medbay, almost careening into a medic.

"So-sorry. Finn! Buddy! You're awake? How are you?" Poe takes a seat in the familiarly rigid chair besides Finn's bed.

Finn looks up at him, fidgeting with the faded fabric of his bedclothes.

"You must have a thousand questions," Poe adds, heart pounding. His eyes drop to the table with Finn's belongings had been neatly arranged, and the newly-stitched jacket folded over the foot of his bed. 

"Where's Rey?" 

Poe opens his mouth to respond, just as the frazzled young medic from earlier peeks his head in the door.

"Uh, Commander Dameron? General Organa wants to talk to you."

Poe sighs as he stands, knees bumping against the frame of Finn's bed. He sets a hand on the other man's shoulder.

"She's safe. I'll-I'll explain later. You get some rest, okay?" 

* * *

[A week earlier]

Chewie roars indignantly.

" _Chewie?_ What are you doing here?" Luke exclaims.

Chewie garbles a response.

"He says he's here to bring you home," Rey explains, and Luke shoots her a look.

The Wookie nods sadly, and elaborates further.

"The Falcon? Wh-where-wait. _Wait._ "

Luke's eyes narrow, and Rey can feel her feet freeze to the soil beneath her.

"Where's Han?" 

Rey remains silent, gaze fixed at the patch of grass by Luke's feet. Chewie moans mournfully.

* * *

 "They  _tracked us?_   In  _lightspeed?_ How?" 

"New technology, I assume."

Poe's face still burns from Leia's confrontation.

_\- You risked the lives of so many._

_\- Only to save more in the end! If-if we let them go, they would've only killed more of us later!_

_\- I know, Poe. But sometimes - sometimes we just have to focus on the present. That's the difference between a leader and a soldier. We save lives, not end them._

_\- They're heroes._

\- Dead _heroes._

_Poe sighs, and the coolness of the ring digs into his collarbone._

_\- I know._

_-You're grounded, Poe._

_\- Again?!_

 

There are more pressing matters to attend to than the jittery feeling in his stomach.

Like the First Order ships rapidly filling their viewport.

Hope, it seemed, was fragile.

* * *

Chewie, busied with his confrontation with the porgs, neglects to notice the shadow approaching the Falcon.

Once Luke's boot hits the ramp, he's awash with nostalgia.

 _What a piece of junk,_ he thinks.

 _Welcome home,_ the Falcon seems to say.

When the lights come alive they shed light to more than just the cockpit.

_\- Don't get cocky, kid!_

Han. Gone. 

Luke collapses into a seat near the dejarik table, gaze fixed on thin air, where once a training remote singed his clothes with lasers.

 _\- Stretch out with your feelings._  

A motor whirs to life.

"Artoo!" Luke exclaims. "You're here too?"

Artoo beeps excitedly, hopping on his tracks as he rolls towards his rightful owner.

"I know, I know. But I can't go back," Luke says, and the shadow falls across his face again. "You won't understand." 

Artoo bloops sadly. 

"There's nothing you can say to convince me to help." 

 _I'll only make things worse,_ he thinks.

The astromech droid seems to stare at him for a moment, and then a fizz of blue static:

"General Kenobi. Years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars-" 

_Leia._

* * *

Leia clings to the bridge, pulls herself to the airlock by sheer willpower. The Force.

_Luke._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I literally saw this less than 12 hours ago but I've already forgotten what order things happen in, so I may come back after the script's been released and change some things around.  
> (Anyone catch the reference to the Poe comics?)


	3. Chapter 3

_"If you live long enough, you see the same eyes in different people."_

* * *

Finn tosses the bag into the escape pod and heaves a sigh of relief. Nobody had spotted him-

"What are you doing down here?"

_Fark._

"I-uh-I was just doing-"

"Wait. You're Finn! You're, you're."

The girl stares at him, dumbfounded. Her eyes are rimmed with red and cheeks glisten, but a bright smile adorns her fce.

"Yeah, yeah I am."

"You're a hero."

"I, uh, wow that's very, kind of you um. Can I get back to work now?"

"Yeah-of-of course, sorry, I'm not that great with, talking I-I really only hang around machinery all day, so uh, much less talking to heroes holy-"

Finn leans against the doorway, trying to block the bag from view. "May the Force be with you," he says, hoping that would encourage the girl to leave.

"Wow."

Her eyes glitter with awe.

He smiles awkwardly.

"I-oh. Finn. You can't  _believe_ the number of people I've had to stop from escaping on these pods."

"Oh, wow, really?"

He swallows.

"Yeah, see, my sister? She just  _died."_ The girl raises a hand to the pendant hanging from her neck. "She died so we could live. So the Resistance could survive. And-and these  _deserters_ just wan-wait. What  _are_ you doing here?" 

"I, um."

The girl takes a step forward, eyes narrowed, as her hand plunges into her pocket.

_Quick, Finn, think. Use that military brain of yours._

"I'm-I'm trying to save the Resistance!"

The girl freezes in her tracks.

"What do you mean? With a bag and an escape pod?" 

Finn nods, hurriedly, and shoves up the sleeve of his shirt. The tracker casts his skin in a bright blue glow.

"You've heard of Rey, haven't you? Tall, three buns, has a lightsaber?" 

The girl's taser clatters to the ground.

"What about her?"

"I'm going to save her. The last of the Jedi." 

* * *

 Finn tugs nervously at his collar as Poe strides around the room. He can't help but notice the change in his posture.

Something had shaken him deeply. But where Finn's first instinct was to run, Poe's was to fight.

In the end, it all ends up working out.

Poe taps the table with both his palms and leans forward.

"Sounds like a plan. You two go find this master codebreaker, bring him back, use him to get on the first Order's ship, disable their tracking device, and I make the jump to hyperspace. Then the First Order won't be able to find us, and when Rey comes back she won't be in danger."

Rose nods.

"But..." Poe arches an eyebrow. "How did you two meet?"

"Luck." "The Force." Finn and Rose say in unison.

* * *

[A week earlier]

Rey confronts him in the hollowed old tree.

"Look, Leia sent me to you as her last hope. If you can't help us, she deserves to know. We deserve to know."

Luke stays silent.

"You're not that busy. I've seen your daily routine."

_Luke shuffles along the edge of the cliff. A strong gust of wind - and he leaps._

_"Watch out!'" Rey shrieks._

_But the old Jedi Master is fine. In fact, he pulls out a fishing pole and pierces the thick skin of some unseen fish swimming below the surface._

_Rey frowns._

She swallows. "Please, help me."

Luke sighs, and turns around from his view of the ocean.

Rey's eyes are wide.

"You've seen this place before," he says, more statement than question.

"In my dreams," she admits.

_\- There's something familiar about this place... I feel like..._

_\- Feel like what?_

Luke squeezes his eyes shut, trying to force the memory back down.

_\- He's too old. Too old to begin the training._

When his eyelids fly wide open, the girl is still staring at him.

"Three lessons. Tomorrow at dawn."

He turns before he can witness the girl's smile.

"I will teach you what I know. And why the Jedi Order must end." 


	4. Chapter 4

_"Never underestimate the power of the Dark Side."_

* * *

Finn and Rose take a moment to watch the fathiers race around the track.

"Everything looks... amazing," Finn murmurs. "It's hard to think about where they're getting their credits from."

Rose nods. "Luxury looks wonderful from a distance, but when you look closer..." She swallows, hard. "War is just  _business_ to them."

"You okay?" Finn frowns. Rose's shoulders are trembling.

She turns to look at him, this _big deal_ in the resistance, and tells him her story.

He nods, afterwards, grip slowly tightening around the ornate railing. "You know where I come from. And what I've seen the First Order do... I never want to see it again. I never want anyone I love to experience that." 

Rose watches intently as Finn avoids eye contact.

"The escape pods... earlier. I wanted to save Rey, but not in the way you think. I wanted for us to run - and I know, it sounds like I'm disrespecting your sister's sacrifice, along with everyone else, by doing so, but... at the time it was the only thing that occurred to me."

He looks at her now, eyes shining bright.

"But you know what? I'm tired of running."

Rose looks down, realizing she'd wound her pendant around her finger without realizing it, and moves to say something when she hears something bumping down the steps behind them. 

BB8 chirps excitedly. The master codebreaker has been located. 

They just need to escape.

* * *

[A few days earlier]

"What is the Force?"

Rey looks up at him eagerly, still feeling a little giddy at the prospect of finally becoming a trained jedi.

"It's... uh, it's a power. That the Jedi have. That let's them... uh. Control people. And make rocks float." 

Luke's eyes narrow.

"Every word in that sentence... was wrong," he says, and Rey can't bring herself to frown. "The Force is not a power you have. It's not about lifting rocks. It's the energy between all things, a tension, a balance - that binds the universe together."

Luke steps around the boulder and motions for Rey to sit on it. She quickly complies, and as she scrambles up Luke's heart pounds in his ears. 

The price of any misstep... would be  _disastrous_.

"Now, reach out." 

He raps her knuckles with the leaf, restraining a chuckle at her expression.

_Now I know how Yoda felt with that cane of his._

* * *

Rose hands over her pendant, fingers numb as the codebreaker snatches it away.

"You-you can't  _do_ that," Finn exclaims. 

"I need payment," he says. "It's just business."

* * *

"There's something else."

Luke's eyes widen.

"Do  _not_ let it pull you in."

"It's calling me." Rey reaches out with her arm again, and this time Luke doesn't notice.

"Rey! Don't-"

The boulder snaps in two.

* * *

Poe sits alone, watching the First Order ships trail after their ship through the viewport.

"Commander Dameron?"

He turns. It's Kaydel.

"They've shot down both our ships," she says, clutching her datapad to her chest. "We're the only ones left."

He leans against the wall. The image of Leia lying prone on her bunk comes to mind.

 _Finn_ , he thinks, hands curling into fists.

"We have to hope Finn and Rose make it there on time."

-  _Don't take any more risks than you need to, Poe._

Poe turns back, and stares at the  _Supremacy._

"But we also need a contingency plan. What would Leia do?" 

* * *

"You didn't even try to resist-"

Luke can't help but feel betrayed, but he can't bring himself to yell at the girl dripping water all over the inside of his hut.

"I know. I'm sorry," Rey says between chattering teeth. "I just wanted to know-"

"No knowledge is worth darkness," Luke says gently. "You saw what it did to Ben."

Rey shifts in her blankets, pulling herself closer to the fire.

"If you don't mind me asking... what happened?"

Luke's gaze falls from her face to the flames licking at his palms.

"I don't know. And that's where I failed him. One day he was here, the next - gone. With some of my students." Rey's lips part open in surprise. "He returned before I even had the-had the time to tell Leia. They.... they destroyed everything."

* * *

"Let's see where this billionaire gets his credits from, shall we?"

Finn crosses his arms as images of various First Order ships flicker over the glass table.

"Hmm. Bad guys, bad guys, bad guys-oh! What's this?" 

He leans back, leering at Finn.

"War is just  _business_."

* * *

"Wh-how are you here!?"

Rey reaches for her staff and jumps to her feet.

Kylo narrows his eyes. "Can you see my surroundings? I can't see yours. Where's Luke? Where are you?"

"You MONSTER! Why did you do that to him?" She jabs her staff in his direction, hoping it would break the image.

"HE tried to kill me."

"LIAR!"

* * *

 Rose turns to Finn.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," he manages to say. The collar is too tight around his neck.

 _Anything's better than a helmet,_ he thinks.

"You look like you're going to puke."

BB8 beeps in solidarity.

"I don't exactly have the  _best_ memories with the first Order."

"Oh." Rose stares at the rows of troopers marching by. "Right."

"So let's make this quick, sh-shall we?" 

Finn nods, and they follow the codebreaker down the hallways.

BB8 boops nervously.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in the debate between sticking to the script and my own dissatisfaction... I tried to find balance.

_"I've got a baaaad feeling about this."_

* * *

 "Jump."

Poe blinks, then looks at his blinking comm. 

"Finn? Finn!" He flicks the switch open and raises it to his mouth. "Finn?"

All he hears is static, and then the familiar voice of a stormtrooper sends his heart plummeting down into his stomach.

Poe looks to Kaydel in horror, and then his expression melts into determination as he clicks off the comm.

"Set the coordinates for a jump."

"Where to, Commander?" 

Somewhere they can reach with their limited fuel. Somewhere safe for the Rebels, someplace where they can restock and defend themselves.

He twirls his mother's ring between his fingers, remembers a tale that Leia had once told him long ago.

"Crait."

* * *

 Finn hopes Poe had the foresight to jump to hyperspace while they still could, because the codebreaker's betrayal means that they won't be able to make it back to the Resistance. He hopes that the time they had was enough. 

For Poe's sake. For Rey's sake. For the Resistance's sake.

For the sake of the galaxy.

Finn swallows hard, and shoots a glance at Rose out of the corner of his eye. She looks like she's on the verge of an panic attack, wide eyes staring at the pendant hanging from her neck.

It's a feeling Finn knows all too well.

"We'll be fine," he murmurs, as the troopers yank them along. "They'll be fine, too. Poe's smart, he's got this." 

A sudden chill goes down his spine, and Finn looks up just as the officer behind him shoves him to he knees. Rose is pushed into the same position.

"FN-2187," Phasma says, armor clinking as she steps forward. "It's good to see you again." 

He vaguely recognizes the red headed man standing beside her - General Hux, he bemusedly realizes - who gives the two rebels a sneer before storming off, presumably to inform a higher up.

Snoke, perhaps.

"It's a shame," she continues, voice mechanized, "that your  _friends_ have managed to escape."

Rose blows out a sigh of relief, and when Finn looks to her now, her eyes are narrowed in determination.

She gives him a tight-lipped smile.

"We will catch them soon enough - but before that,  _you_ will pay." 

She beckons for a handful of troopers to step forward, and several electric staffs come to life.

"Make this painful," she says, as the officer undoes his cuffs. "Not only has he betrayed us, but he has disappointed  _me._ Personally."

Finn rises, and they charge.

* * *

[Now]

Rey jumps up with a start.

"Look, I know meditation is hard, but what was  _that?_ "Luke exclaims, looking up from his cross-legged seat on the ground.

"My-my friends," Rey says between gasps for air. "They're in danger!"

Luke looks pained.

"You're going to go save them?" he asks. "You haven't had enough training!"

Rey shoots a look at him that forces Luke to rise.

 _Of someone she reminds_   _you, hmm?_

"I-" she falters. "I have to go. Please," she adds plaintively.

 Luke sighs.

"You clearly know how to use a weapon," he muses aloud, sparing a look at her now-abandoned staff, then turns his gaze to the protrusion of rock cleaved in half by her lightsaber. Rey grimaces, remembering the many hours she'd spent returning the favour to the Caretakers, only to realize she could've used to Force to stop the debris from crashing into them in the first place.

"And you have learned when to not use it," he adds with a slight smile. "I have taught you of the nature of the Force, of how it transcends the boundaries of Light and Dark, Jedi and Sith-"

"It's an energy that binds everything  _and_ not just for lifting rocks," she adds unhelpfully, eager to gain his permission to leave. "And you've taught me to mediate, and keep that creep out of my mind-"

Luke sighs dramatically.

"Alright."

She grins, and moves to turn away, then stops mid-tracks.

"You aren't coming with me?" she asks, squinting her eyes at the setting sun.

He shakes his head.

"You think you need my help," he says slowly. "I think you don't. I-I believe you don't. My time is done, it's time for a new generation of... Jedi," Luke explains.

"I don't think I can."

"You can't, not with  _that_ attitude." Rey groans, forever the impatient student, and a smile plays at the corner of hislips.

"Okay. So I can. But Leia-"

Luke sighs.

"I will be there when she needs me." 

Rey gives him one long, mournful glance, before mumbling a thank you and leaving.

Luke watches the Falcon disappear in a streak of light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updated earlier chapters with more accurate dialogue and clearer timeskips *coughs @ LF's direction*


	6. Chapter 6

_"Join me. And together-"_

* * *

Rose picks off the last of Finn's attackers with a well-aimed blaster, but there are still too many troopers in this hangar. Sweat beads on Finn's brow and drips down under the collar of his uniform.

"You don't have to do this!" he shouts, startling everyone including himself.  "You don't have to fight. For her."

Phasma scoffs. "You think you can sway them to your side? To dare oppose the Order like you scum?" 

Her words are defiant, yet something teetering on the cusp of hesitation lies under her assertive tone.

-  _He would make a fine General. The best of our troopers._

Finn reaches out, with both hand and mind, towards the other troopers. 

"You don't have to fight," he repeats. "For her. Or for me. You can run. Be _free._ "

For one, golden, moment, Finn spots a stormtrooper lower their weapon. For a moment, he can feel  _change_ ripple through their ranks, as they turn to look at each other in bewilderment. He can almost hear the surprised remarks on their internal frequencies. 

The moment is shattered by a blasterbolt. 

The trooper that had lowered their weapon falls, and Phasma tucks her blaster back in her holster.

"Finn!" Rose shouts, and he turns just in time to catch the staff.

"So be it," Phasma mutters, and her own staff sparks to life.

* * *

Leia grasps Poe's hand.

"We're-we're headed to Crait," Poe explains, rising from his seat at her bedside. "I wasn't sure, but Finn said to jump and I'm pretty sure he and Rose have been caught now, I'm so sorry for sending them off on an unofficial mission but it was either that or abandon ship and I thought we still had time before we had to do that but now-"

"Poe," Leia murmurs. "You did the right thing." She squeezes his hand. "You risked two lives and secured the safety of the entire Resistance. It's hard."

She gives him a small smile and he places a hand over their intertwined fingers. Leia's gaze follows, and then her eyes land on her wrist.

"Where's my tracker?" 

* * *

 When the Falcon leaps out of hyperspace, all Rey is awash with is a sense of impending doom.

Chewie growls nervously at the sight of the large flagship.

"I know. So do I." She ducks to get a better view out of the viewport. "Stay cloaked. I'll go in, find Leia, and tell you what's going on."

The Wookie barks an affirmation, and then a question.

"If you see Finn before I do? Tell him," she wets her lips. "Tell him-"

Chewie whuffs a slight chuckle, then growls a three word response.

"Yeah," she grins. "Tell him that."

* * *

 Finn stands over her prone body, staff deactivated in his grip. Rose walks up to his side and rests a hand on his upper arm, seemingly understanding the importance of the moment.

-  _Guess who's in charge now, Phasma?_

"I am," he murmurs, just as another chill runs down his spine.

"TRAITOR!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would looove to expand on Finn vs. Phasma but other fics have better takes on it and my action scenes are Not That Great.


End file.
